Predator vs Magnus Robot Fighter

[tarheelmarine]

I don't know if this one has been addressed before on the boards.

I just re-read the two issues. Both had excellent BWS covers, and the Lee Weeks interior art was appropiate for the the Dark Horse style of the 90's.

What I found very interesting was that a Predator had killed an X-O Manowar class armor. What puzzled me was the fact that the X-O armor still retained the shape of the helmet. That must have been one powerful Predator to take out Manowar armor.

I liked the fact that Leeja could sense the armor was still alive--which made me wonder if the armor could rejoin if the rest of the armor was found (I'm probably thinking to much into it now).

I did think it was a shame that Magnus chucked the X-O ring he earned after killing the Predator, but oh well.

Anyone else got thoughts on this issue?

[Todd Luck]

I don't know if this one has been addressed before on the boards.

I just re-read the two issues. Both had excellent BWS covers, and the Lee Weeks interior art was appropiate for the the Dark Horse style of the 90's.

What I found very interesting was that a Predator had killed an X-O Manowar class armor. What puzzled me was the fact that the X-O armor still retained the shape of the helmet. That must have been one powerful Predator to take out Manowar armor.

I liked the fact that Leeja could sense the armor was still alive--which made me wonder if the armor could rejoin if the rest of the armor was found (I'm probably thinking to much into it now).

I did think it was a shame that Magnus chucked the X-O ring he earned after killing the Predator, but oh well.

Anyone else got thoughts on this issue?

I used to think the armor was always in a ball when not on the ring bearer but look at the early X-O issues. It frequently was in "armor" mode when Aric wasn't wearing it. The ball was a "mobile" form that was better suited storage and travel.

So, no, the predator didn't have to beat the ring bearer with the armor on him to get that helmet (I used to joke that the Predator wasn't really that tough, he just took the X-O armor Solar left near Saturn in Solar 7 to improve his trophy room ).

The helmet did join with the rest of the armor later, post-Shooter, in Rai and the Future Force.

[tarheelmarine]

I just picked up Rai 15 at the HEROS con and saw how that worked out. That answered a few questions I had about the fate of that ring and where the Aryan had received the armor.

Nice use of continuity with the Valiant U!

[Tyrnis]

My roommate and I just read those recently as well (a reread in my case, the first time for him.) We both had to laugh at the sheer stupidity of Magnus there at the end.

I'll grant you, he wanted to prove his point, and he did. But that is the control ring of of a weapon that would make whoever posessed it the most powerful person on the planet, and Magnus knew it. He'd seen the Manowar armor in action during Unity. You do not just toss something like that away where potentially anyone can get hold of it.

Other than that, though, it was a quite enjoyable read.

And speaking of the Rai/Magnus issues in which the armor reappeared...yeesh. Aric's armor didn't get damaged when Ax tried to take it over, and Ax's power certainly seemed to be more potent than the Blood of Heroes. That part just struck me as kind of silly. As did the fact that, a couple of days later when the armor was healed, they didn't turn it over to a trusted teammate (say, Gilad, since enhanced strength or not, he was pretty much stuck using a blaster pistol the whole war) for use in slaughtering the Malevs. Granted, it would have been a much shorter story arc, then, since someone competent with Manowar armor would probably have been powerful enough to defeat the emperor singlehanded. But, then, we also had a Nazi empire in 4002. So it's really not so silly in comparison :-p

(And yes, I'm being a touch unfair to the Malev war story arc. As a rule, I like John Ostrander, the art was good, and aside from little things like shouts of MINDLOCK!, it hasn't been a bad reread thusfar.)

[tarheelmarine]

My roommate and I just read those recently as well (a reread in my case, the first time for him.) We both had to laugh at the sheer stupidity of Magnus there at the end.

I'll grant you, he wanted to prove his point, and he did. But that is the control ring of of a weapon that would make whoever posessed it the most powerful person on the planet, and Magnus knew it. He'd seen the Manowar armor in action during Unity. You do not just toss something like that away where potentially anyone can get hold of it.

Other than that, though, it was a quite enjoyable read.

And speaking of the Rai/Magnus issues in which the armor reappeared...yeesh. Aric's armor didn't get damaged when Ax tried to take it over, and Ax's power certainly seemed to be more potent than the Blood of Heroes. That part just struck me as kind of silly. As did the fact that, a couple of days later when the armor was healed, they didn't turn it over to a trusted teammate (say, Gilad, since enhanced strength or not, he was pretty much stuck using a blaster pistol the whole war) for use in slaughtering the Malevs. Granted, it would have been a much shorter story arc, then, since someone competent with Manowar armor would probably have been powerful enough to defeat the emperor singlehanded. But, then, we also had a Nazi empire in 4002. So it's really not so silly in comparison :-p

(And yes, I'm being a touch unfair to the Malev war story arc. As a rule, I like John Ostrander, the art was good, and aside from little things like shouts of MINDLOCK!, it hasn't been a bad reread thusfar.)

I agree, but they also never addressed what happened to the ring when Magnus' mentored was killed. Why wouldn't Spylocke have picked up that armor? That would have been cool to see how the alien armor interacted with one of its own kind.

[Tyrnis]

I agree, but they also never addressed what happened to the ring when Magnus' mentored was killed. Why wouldn't Spylocke have picked up that armor? That would have been cool to see how the alien armor interacted with one of its own kind.

I'm actually not far enough along in my rereading to have realized that 1AB ends up getting killed off -- where I'm at, Spylocke just tried to get the ring and was told off by Magnus and the others. (I've forgotten a _lot_ of the details over the years; it's not quite like a first reading, but it's about as close as you can come for a reread.)

It definitely would have been cool to see Spylocke get hold of it, though, yeah. One really does have to wonder what one of the last survivors of his people would do with their ultimate weapon if he got hold of it. And what of the spore he was after? We know he could have used that to make a starship for himself...

[tarheelmarine]

Indeed he could have made a starship. I wonder if he would have wanted to leave though? He seemed content to be the guardian of the blood of heroes, especially since he was Rai's bestfriend.